The Dark Master
The''' Dark Master''' is an eight-bit pixelated NPC who bears a passing resemblance to The Light Master, yet the Dark Master’s sinister nature exposes himself as the evil counterpart of the Dojo’s benign owner. Role The Dark Master is a mercenary who works for anyone willing to pay for his services, namely those who can afford his extravagant fees. However, his skills live up to his billing; he’s one of the few beings capable of taking on the Light Master in an equal fight. Considering, of course, the Dark Master fought fair to begin with, since he isn’t above trickery to subdue or assassinate his targets. The Chief Executive contracted the Dark Master for several assignments throughout the series, who in turn served as the right hand man of the corrupt business leader while being paid handsomely for his services. He was valued for his ability to carry out orders with discretion, and enforced the Chief Executive’s will whenever the true power behind the throne was met with opposition. In the Web Series Although the Dark Master made sparse appearances, he was responsible for many of the Chief Executive's plans coming to fruition. The Dark Master also held his own in combat, and snuffed out several threats to his employer’s operations while unleashing a great deal of mayhem on his own. Stage Five The Dark Master was first seen alongside the Chief Executive during the wild party, right after the Dragon had been chased off by Dan and several of the King's Guards. While Josie and The Waiter departed the celebration in secrecy, the Dark Master became interested in the duo’s unusual behavior. Later, when Josie, the Waiter, and several Ninja Rebels of the Resistance invaded the lair where the Baby Dragon was held captive, the Dark Master ambushed the group in order to annihilate the trespassers. The Waiter was the Dark Master’s first victim; he impaled the treacherous double agent through their chest with his sword while the King’s Guards fought against the Ninja Rebels. Afterward, the Dark Master directed his attention towards Josie, and raised his blade to execute her as well. In a turn of events, the now freed Baby Dragon bared its teeth. Having realized Josie was its savior, it decided to return the favor against her assailant. It bit down on the Dark Master - right before he could strike Josie - and shook the sinister mercenary around like a helpless rag doll. During the chaos, he lost his sword; suffered catastrophic damage; and was cast away. Josie used the opportunity to flee the King’s Castle with the Baby Dragon (and Dan, who was too drunk to even notice everything that had happened), and escaped from the Dark Master while the the Ninja Rebels of the Resistance fled the castle their own way - along with the corpse of the waiter, who they intended to give a proper burial as their way of showing respect to a fallen comrade. Stage Seven The Dark Master reappeared in Stage Seven, having mended his wounds and pride from the previous battle. The Chief Executive hired the Dark Master with a new contract: to kidnap several villagers, whom would be forced them run on an electricity-supplying treadmill that in turn powered the King’s Castle - which had lost its original source of power when the Baby Dragon escaped. After being promised a lucrative amount of money, the Dark Master agreed to the terms. With little effort, the Dark Master subdued several villagers while he showcased his stealth expertise. He ambushed a farmer in a tall field, tranquilized another person while they were retrieving water from a well with a blow dart, and utilized sleeping powder to drag away a third unconscious person near a statue of the King. The captured people were then taken to the sewers, and forced to run on a treadmill under the watch of the King’s Guards. Finally, when Josie walked away from the Dojo, she was ambushed by the sinister mercenary - who nursed a grudge against her for having freed the Baby Dragon. With gusto, the panicking Executives sent the same text message to several individuals: the rest of the villagers - some of whom were Ninja Rebels of the Resistance - and the Light Master, who suspected his dark counterpart played a role in this diabolical plot. Unfortunately for the heroic Executives, the Dark Master discovered their treachery against the Chief Executive's plan, and executed the pair on the spot. Stage Eight In the webseries' Stage Eight, The Dark Master ambushes Dan in the sewers with a new paid contract: to finish him off for good. Having cut off Dan from the Geezers and Josie, the hero was left alone to face the Dark Master’s wrath. However, right before he could land a single strike, the Light Master intervened on Dan’s behalf. Enraged at the sight of his good counterpart, the Dark Master began to duel with the Light Master; this gave Dan the opportunity to escape and chase after Josie once more. It’s left unknown who won the duel, and since Dan restarted the level it‘s also left unknown if the two masters will face off again in the future. In the Game The Dark Master serves as one of the main antagonists in Stage Eight, namely as the boss of Stage 8-3-3 called Enter the Dark Master. He prevents the player-controlled character from following Josie (or Dan, if Josie is the player-controlled character), and managed to cut off the player-controlled character from the rest of the crew. As a result, the player must struggle against the vicious mercenary, who in turn uses his full power to eradicate you. Boss Fight The Dark Master is a dangerous boss with six hundred health points (which is doubled in Hard Mode), and initiates several phases to get the upper hand over your character. In this fight, there are a total of six phases, and each one involves the Dark Master using his martial prowess as well as various energy-based attacks. Furthermore, he teleports around frequently, making it difficult to lock him down, and using non-explosive ranged weapons isn’t recommended; he takes too little damage from them to be worth using, not to mention he can block them with his sword on occasion. If you manage to deplete one-sixth of the Dark Master’s health, he will became enraged, and teleport your character by force to a different location. There, he will utilize a different ability in the hopes of destroying you. Phase One & Four During this phase, The Dark Master assaults the player-controlled character with his sword. He will either charge forward in a lunging motion, or swing wide in order to strike his prey from a considerable reach. He can be very difficult to catch off guard in this phase because he teleports with an alarming frequency, and will teleport to safety if you approach him right when he appears. He can also block non-explosive projectiles during these phases, making them unwise to use. A trick to overcoming this phase is staying far away whenever he sets up an attack. Wait for the Dark Master to make his first move, and when he pulls his sword in front of him that means he will lunge towards you; jump over him to dodge, then retaliate while he catches his breath. The second striking method is more tricky if the Dark Master holds his blade to his side while walking towards you. While it appears easier to jump over him, his sword slices from a considerable distance, meaning you must time the jump to reach over him at maximum height to avoid his attack. If you fail, he’ll cut you down in the air, and deal a considerable amount of damage doing so. On occasion, the Dark Master will tire himself out - having overexerted himself during an attack, which gives you ample time to put the hurt on him. Also, at any point you can also fire an explosive projective (RPG7 or Carlgustav) to inflict damage, for while he can block regular projectiles with his sword he will still take damage from an explosive. After losing a sixth of his health, he becomes enraged and teleports you by force to the next location. Phase Two & Five The Dark Master, realizing your competence at holding your own in close quarters combat, decides to utilize his energy attacks to defeat you. He also floats in the air, making sure you cannot reach him - even with projectile weapons. Finally, he materializes several clones to confuse you, but they’re all capable of hurting you regardless should you be caught by their attacks. After spawning a small army of clones, they crash to the ground in order to unleash an energy blast attack. If you are near the impact, or fail to jump high enough in order to avoid the blast, you will take damage. The order of how the clones fall changes after each wave, but the clones telegraph when they’re about to launch themselves into the ground. Afterwards, the Dark Master makes a last ditch effort by using a much stronger energy blast that shocks the ground further as well. Like the previous phase, the ground isn’t your friend, so jumping will help you avoid the attack. The Dark Master will tire himself out after he crashes onto the ground. Use that opportunity to retaliate against him, and if you haven’t depleted his next sixth of his health, he will repeat the onslaught again. Otherwise, upon doing so, he will become enraged and teleport you to the next phase. Phase Three & Six The Dark Master resorts to his most powerful energy attacks in his repertoire during this phase, having become desperate to finish you off. While floating in the air, he starts to cast orbs of energy at you, though he chooses at random the size of them. To complicate matters, he can only be hurt by one attack before he teleports again; having an improved High Kick or explosive projectiles helps during this phase. One variation of the orbs has the Dark Master throwing several smaller orbs which move in a straight line, but he targets where you are currently running. It’s dangerous to attack him while he’s still casting because he can hurt you with an orb even if you land an attack on him. It’s best to let him fire off several orbs, then hurt him while he’s exhausted. The second variation is more difficult to avoid; the Dark Master supercharges an orb to maximize the damage and AoE (area of effect), then chucks it at you. However, he can only throw one before exhausting himself, yet the size makes it harder to avoid. Similar to the smaller orb bombardment, let him strike first, then retaliate while he catches his breath. If you reached phase three, the Dark Master will repeat the first three phases again, but if you had reached the sixth phase then the battle ends. Deus ex Machina After all six phases have concluded, the Dark Master becomes unable to control his power any longer. He then explodes in a column of light, while it dissolves his particles, until only a single bit remains. However, to the player-controlled character’s horror, the Dark Master re-materializes right in front of the door where Josie (or Dan, if playing as Josie) had earlier fled through. At this point, the player discovers the Dark Master cannot be killed off for good by the player-controlled character, and can only watch as the sinister mercenary prepares to strike them down. In a shocking twist, the Light Master - appearing out of nowhere - intervenes by throwing his cane at the Dark Master. As he looks into the sky, he realizes his good counterpart is floating there. The Light Master recovers his cane, turns it into a sword, and starts beckoning his evil counterpart to challenge him. Upon this provocation, the Dark Master - deciding to abandon his original contract to kill the player-controlled character - assaults the Light Master; the screen fills with constant energy blasts, forcing the player-controlled character to flee the area. Stage 8-3-3 is then completed, leading out of the sewers and back to the surface of the King's Castle. Trivia * The Dark Master is shown to possess an extreme hatred towards the Light Master. When he appeared to challenge the Dark Master, the mercenary didn’t hesitate to abandon his original paid assignment, choosing instead to fight his good counterpart. However, it’s currently unknown what happened which caused bad blood to form between them. * Similar to the Light Master, the Dark Master makes sounds heard during the eight-bit gaming era when he runs around. * The Dark Master can be re-fought in an Adventure Mode stage called Shadows in the Mist; he can only be fought by the Custom Character in this match, and the stage is dramatically altered. Harder difficulties include more spike traps designed to give him a decided edge over the player-controlled character, and a larger room for phase three as well as six which the Dark Master can use to launch energy attacks from a safer distance. ** You can use the Protective Shield or Berserk power-ups to even out the fight, and purchase a projectile weapon if you feel that you need it, though any non-explosive projectile weapon is worthless for this fight like normal. * If the player-controlled character is hit by the super orb attack during phase three and/or six, the Dark Master will laugh at your failure. * The achievement you gain beating the Dark Master for the first time - Deus ex Machina (translated from New Latin as “''A God in the Machine''”) - is a reference to the plot device of its namesake. It describes times when an unexpected event and/or source of power appears which gives the protagonist a way to get past a seemingly hopeless situation. In this case, the Dark Master couldn’t be killed off for good, but his hatred towards the Light Master re-directed the mercenary’s anger towards his good counterpart - thus giving the player-controlled character a chance to escape. ** When Deus ex Machina was used during the time of ancient Greek and Roman drama, it was done with an actor being lifted in the air by a crane in order to appear as if they were floating - thus giving them a powerful presence, sometimes imitating a god or other powerful being. During the game, the Light Master is seen floating in the air when he challenges the Dark Master. In this sense, the Light Master is enacting a supernaturally empowered form of Deus ex Machina, something actors could only dream of doing in real life. Category:Characters Category:Dan the Man game Category:Dan the Man web series Category:Enemies Category:Bosses